In xianshi performance practice, a
single performance of a melody (qupai)
by the ensemble normally consists of several repetitions of the tune
and involves what is referred to as ban variation.6 In banvariation, each repetition of
the melody features variations of the basic melody by means of
augmentation or diminution, insertion of different melodic
interpolations, change in rhythmic pattern, and acceleration or
decrease in tempo. The succession of variants forms a suite-like
structure called taoqu and follows an
ordered sequence and changes in tempo.

The employment of the cui technique is an essential component
in ban variation. With cui, repeated tones, passing
tones, and neighboring tones fill in the space between the structural
tones of the melody falling on the main and secondary beats of every
measure to which the melody has been reduced. This increases the note
density and has the effect of subtly accelerating the tempo of the
piece and driving it forward. Thus, a performance of a qupai may start out slowly with an 8/4 time signature and then
gradually accelerates in the successive repetitions in 4/4 and 2/4
time and, finally, in 1/4 time.7 However, throughout the performance of the ban variants, the structural integrity of the qupaimelody is maintained.

The performance of a single taoqucomposed of the banvariants of a given melody customarily occurs entirely in one diaoti, say, in L3H6. A switch to another diaotitakes
place only with the performance of another set of banvariants
- in short, another taoqu. But musicians very seldom perform
the same qupaiin different diaotiin succession.8 The common practice during a music session is
to perform different melodies, and each one is rendered in a
particular diaoti.9

Most melodies started out being performed in
either L3L6 or H3H6. But some of them somehow came to be performed in
other diaotias well. For example, "Gold Shaking in the Willows" ("Liu Yao Jin"), a melody borrowed from the
hanyue string ensemble repertoire and
originally designated to be performed in L3L6, can also be heard performed in
H5H6, L3H6 and Live5 (Example 1). "Chant of Auspiciousness and Morality" (Fu De Ci), which was originally in L3L6,
is also performed in Live5 and has, in fact, surpassed the former
modal variant in popularity. It is now almost always performed in
Live5. "Jackdaws Playing in the Water" (Hanya Xishui), a melody originally in H3H6, has recently
acquired variants in L3L6 and a relatively recent diaoti called which I discuss in more detail elsewhere.10

Consultation with musicians and musical analysis
suggest four ways in which the switch from one diaoti to another
is accomplished. But for the purpose of this article, I will discuss only
two which would give a better sense of the notion and central role of modality
in Chaozhou xianshiand which are relevant to what I had witnessed
of the emergence of a new diaoti. One of the techniques of modal
variation in Chaozhou xianshiis the interchange of the characteristic
or structural tones of the scale. The switch between any of the four diaotiI
have mentioned (and Live5) is basically accomplished by interchanging the mi(3) with the fa(4) and the la(6) tone with the ti(7) as structural tones. In the case of a shift to Live5, the
ornamentation of re(2) and total exclusion of the mi(3)
tone from the scale are also involved.

As Example
1 illustrates11 however, there is more involved in modal
variation than systematically substituting one tone for another. It
also involves manipulating the melodic line so as to emphasize the
tones that provide the characteristic "flavor" (weidao) of each diaotiwhile
maintaining melodic flow and coherence. In Example 1, which shows variants
of "Gold Shaking in the Willows" in the four previously discussed diaoti,
the melody in each of the variants tends to gravitate toward the tones
that characterize the mode. In the L3L6 variant, mi(3) and fa(6)
are given particular emphasis; in the H3H6, it is the fa(4) and ti(7) tones; in the L3H6 variant, it is the fa(4) and la(6);
and in the Live5 variant, it is the highly ornamented re(2) as well as fa (4) and ti (7). Consequently,
although they are similar in most of their phrase endings and cadence
points (except for the second phrase which ends on the down beat in
Measure 7), the melodic approach to these phrase endings and cadence
points differ. This can be observed right at the start in the first
three measures that make up the opening phrases of the
variants.12 Certain parts of the melodies in particular,
such as Measures 6, 13, 15 and 19, which show a marked divergence in
the melodic lines of the four variants, also well illustrate the
point.

I have mentioned earlier that the starting
tone and the cadence tone of the modal scale are not considered very
important as determinants of mode in Chaozhou xianshi. In
Example 1, it can be noted that
the variants of "Gold Shaking in the Willows" in the four diaoti I have discussed all begin with re(2), thus
making it the key-note. In many traditional theories of the Chinese
modal system, these variants would simply be considered to be in the
shang mode
which is based on a pentatonic scale series beginning with re. But what is considered and referred to as "mode" in the
context of many Chinese regional music--that is, what is generated by
using each of the tones of the pentatonic scale series in turn as the
starting note resulting in various permutations of the scale--is
actually considered a submode in the xianshi modal system. Mode
in Chaozhou xianshimusic is a broader concept and phenomenon
and subsumes what is generally referred to as diao, diaoshi, or diaoxing in traditional Chinese music,
hence my use of the term diaotiin this paper.13Diaoti
connotes a larger and higher domain that encompasses not only melodic
aspects relating to scale such as pitch hierarchy and the intervallic
arrangement of the pitches, but structural aspects relating to the
articulation of melody arising from particularized configurations of
the scale as well as tuning and temperament. In other words, as I
argue and show in this paper, diaotigoes beyond tonality which
is greatly emphasized in many traditional Chinese theories of
mode.

Variants in any of the four diaotidiscussed can be rendered in different diaoshi. The
variants in the different submodes are referred to by the starting
note (zitou) using the designated
names of the gongche notation symbols corresponding to the
scale degrees 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6, i.e. shang, che, gong, liu, and
wu respectively (Table). Thus, the variant of a qupaibased on the scale series with 2 as the starting note, for
example, is said to be in the che zitou
submode. But modal variation in different submodes,
however, has so far only been undertaken with the melody "Gold Shaking
in the Willows." Example 2 shows
variants of this melody in the five submodes of L3L6.

Another technique of modal variation is that
known as fan (literally meaning
"to invert" or "to flip over"). The term fanrefers to the
practice of performers of the two-stringed fiddles in the ensemble
such as the erxian, tihu
and yehu of mentally interchanging the scale degrees
originally assigned to the tones produced by the two open strings of
their instruments (cf. Gao 1981:125-126). This effects something
akin to a transposition of a fourth or a fifth up the original scale
built on F, although the process and results are not quite the same,
as will be illustrated below. Two diaotiare generated in this
manner:
fanxian
and tiezhi fan.

To elaborate, let me turn to the tuning of the
erxian fiddle. The two strings of the erxianare
normally tuned a fourth apart to c1 and f1,
which are normally designated as sol(5) and do(1) respectively. In one of the practices
of the fantechnique, the second string (f1 ) is
made to assume the scale degree originally assigned to the first
string (c1 ) in which case F gets designated as sol(5). The resulting re-solrelationship between the
tones corresponding to the two strings implies a shift of the role of tonic
to B-flat, a movement of a fourth up or a fifth down from the customary
scale built on F, and the formation of a new scale with a different set
of pitches which make up the basis of the diaoticalled fanxian.

A second diaotigenerated by using the fantechnique
is to make the first string of the erxianassume the scale degree
originally assigned to the second string, in which case C gets designated
as do
(1) and, in relation to it, F becomes designated as fa
(4). The resulting do-fa tonal relationship between the
tones corresponding to the two strings implies a shift of the role of
tonic to C, a movement of a fifth up or a fourth down the customary
scale built on F, and the formation of another scale with a different
set of pitches which make up the basis of the tiezhi fan diaoti.

The two processes just described, however, do
not really result in the transposition into a different tonality in
the Western music sense, because although there is an actual shift in
terms of pitches, F remains conceptually designated as do(1). In a transposed scale in Western music, this would not be the
case; the tonic would also shift and a new tone would be designated as do. Given the retention of F as doand the fact that the
pitches comprising the scales are not equal-tempered, the intervallic
relationships of the tones of the two modal scales formed by means of
the fantechnique are not the same
as those between the tones in a transposed scale in Western music in which
either B-flat or C is designated as do(see Figure 2).

Figure 2: Comparison of the intervallic relationships of the tones
in a
fanxian modal scale and a scale in the key of B-flat

The difference in the scale degrees assigned
to the tones comprising each of the two scales shown in Figure 2
implies a difference in their ornamentation and treatment during
performance. In the fanxianmodal scale in which F continues to
be designated as do(1), the tone performed as H6 and designated as bianzhi (4), is a raised B-flat. Thus,
to be precise, it is written as Bb, since it is approximately a quartertone higher
than an actual B-flat, the designated doin the transposed scale in Western music.
Examples 3.1 to 3.3 showing the first two phrases
of Liu Qing Niang transcribed in three different modal variants
perhaps illustrate the point better.

Example
3.1 shows the first two phrases of "Lady of the Green Willow"
(Liu Qing Niang) in its original
L3L6 mode. Example 3.2 shows
the same two phrases in fanxian, which has been accomplished by
a shift of a fourth down (or a fifth up the scale), with F continuing
to be designated as do. Compare it with
Example 3.3, which shows the same two phrases of
"Lady of the Green Willow" in the L3L6 mode but this time transposed
to the key of B-flat. It can be seen that although the fa(4) and sol(5) in
Example
3.2 appear to correspond to same tones as do(1) and re(2) in Example 3.3, the
size of the intervals formed by these two pairs of tones are not the
same. The interval between the fa(4) and sol(5) tones
in Example 3.2 is smaller. This
is because the tone designated as fa(4), as I have already
said, is actually a raised tone and, therefore, slightly higher than
an actual B-flat, whereas the tone designated as do(1) in Example 3.3 is
exactly equivalent to B-flat. For the same reason, the opposite is
true for the interval between the tones designated as re(2)
and fa(4) in Example
3.2. The interval between them is larger than the interval between
the tones designated as la(6) and do(1) in
Example 3.3.

These examples also illustrate how the melodic
orientation of each scale also tends to be dissimilar since different notes
are given prominence and emphasis during performance. It can be seen how
Measure 6 in Example 3.2 in the fanxianmode took a different turn of phrase to avoid sounding like its counterpart
measure in the transposed L3L6 mode. The tone designated as lawas
momentarily replaced by the tone designated as ti(7) tone in the
cluster of notes, 1171, which could have been performed as 1161, the exact
transposition of the cluster of notes, 5535, in the corresponding measure
in Example 3.3.

Fanxian("inverting the strings") is widely
considered in Chaozhou music circles as the fifth most common diaotinext to the first four ones discussed earlier. However, it does
not quite belong to the same category as them because of the process
using the fantechnique by which it is generated.

The fanxianmodal scale consists of practically
the same tones as L3H6. The two diaotidiffer, however, in that
the scale structure of fanxiancame about as a result of performing
a melody originally in the L3L6 mode a fourth up (or a fifth down) the
scale changing the designation of F as do. In contrast, the scale
structure of L3H6 is formed by the replacement as structural tones of the ti(7) tone by the la(6) tone, and the mi(3) tone by the fa(4) tone. Moreover, variants in fanxiando not have the mi(3) and ti
(7) tones as much as do variants in L3H6 where they are often used as passing
tones (Example
4).

Modal variation in the tiezhi fan mode
involves performing a melody originally in either L3L6 or H3H6 a fifth
up (or a fourth down) the scale, without changing the designation of F
as do. It is the opposite of the process involved in
transforming a melody in the L3L6 mode into the fanxianmode. The application of the fantechnique
resulting in the tiezhi fanmode are carried out on melodies originally in H3H6 more than on
melodies originally in L3L6. Examples of melodies that are
traditionally in H3H6 and have been transformed into tiezhi
fanmodal variants distinctly known as tiezhi zhongliu (tiezhi H3H6) are
"Jackdaws Playing in the Water" (Hanya
Xishui), "Raindrops Falling on the Jasmine Flowers" (Yujian Lihua) (Example 5), and "Red Lotus" (Fen Hong Lian). "Red Lotus," however, is
also transformed into a tiezhi fanvariant known as tiezhi
qingliu (tiezhi L3L6, Example 6). This is done presumably by replacing fa(4) and ti(7) as structural tones with mi(3) and la(6) respectively in
the tiezhiH3H6 modal scale after application of the tiezhi fantechnique on the original L3L6 variant of the melody. Thus in the
tiezhi L3L6 mode, we have the simultaneous application of the two
modal variation techniques that have been discussed so far, namely the fantechnique and the interchange of the characteristic and
structural tones of the scale.